Washington (CNN) - Leading Republicans are in Washington Friday and Saturday speaking before the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition conference. Some highlights from the speeches are below. Read more about the conference here.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on President Obama's re-election: "Barack Obama has worn out two sets of knee pads down on his knees praying that conservatives will split it up (the 2012 vote) and have some third party candidate. And my hat is off to the tea party people who have said no, we're going to run as Republicans because we understand that's the way to get there."

Barbour on Republicans in 2012: "Conservatives, religious people, small government people, we are not going to have purity, we're not going to have a perfect candidate. There's only been one perfect person that ever walked on this earth and there ain't going to be another one in this election."

"Advocate who you want, advocate your candidate but once we have a nominee make sure people compare our nominee, our direction, our beliefs, our principles, our faith to Barack Obama. Nothing will be more unifying for us if our heads are right about this."

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on health care reform: "I am convinced that ultimately ... we will win this fight because we will repeal Obamacare. It will happen. And I am committed, I am committed. I will not rest until we repeal Obamacare. America will not rest until we repeal Obamacare. Take it to the bank. Cash the check. It will be done. It will not stand; the American people will not stand."

"Because know that you know that you know that you know, the American people are with us on this issue. That's why the window of opportunity that we have in 2012 is so crucial."

Bachmann on Israel: "Our president made a shocking display of betraying our greatest friend and ally, Israel, when he said to Israel you need to give up more land, you must give up more land, shrink to your 67 borders, as a matter of fact cut your nation in two so you're separated from each other to indefensible borders and give that land away to the Palestinians who by the way don't even recognize that Israel exists or has a right to defend herself. America must do what all previous presidents have done since Harry Truman and stand with Israel. I stand with Israel. He does not speak for us on the issue of Israel."

Former Utah governor and potential presidential candidate Jon Huntsman: "I came today not to give a political speech but simply to introduce myself and my family. If the Faith and Freedom Coalition were to understand one political thing about me and the state I served it would be this: Utah had some of the greatest people in the nation. In Utah, people know the difference between freedom and serfdom. The serfdom of high debt and massive government and the toll these take on our liberty, our economy and our lives. And that ladies and gentlemen I believe will be the essence of the election in 2012."

Huntsman on America's future: "This too is a time for choosing. This is a moment when we will choose whether we are to become a declining power in the world, eaten from within or a nation that regains its economic health and maintains its long loved liberties. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not just a time for choosing new leaders, this is the hour when we choose our future."
Real estate mogul Donald Trump on Iraq: “In the old days if we win we get the country, if we lose we get the hell out...We should give our soldiers and their families money [from Iraq]. We won the war, we’re going to take some oil, we’re going to pay ourselves back.”

Trump on America's future: “We have problems that are solvable in this country...With the right leader, this country can be great again. If we don’t make a change at the top, we are going over the ledge.”
2012 presidential candidate and Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on President Obama: "If we're going to restore America's promise, we need to have a president that keeps his promises to America. That's not Barack Obama...tell President Obama 'We've had enough of your broken promises, we've had enough of your fluffy rhetoric. Lead the country or get out of the way.'"

Pawlenty on foreign policy: "Radical Islam, not all of Islam, but radical Islam believes it's okay to kill in the name of their religion and it's not, we need to say that...We need a president of the United States that stands shoulder to shoulder with our great friend Israel and makes sure there is no daylight between the United States and Israel.

Pawlenty on debt: We cannot spend more than we take in. Just because we followed Greece into democracy doesn't mean we need to follow them into bankruptcy.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate on President Obama and the economy: "We're united in our belief in America...and we're also united in our concern for America because our country is in peril. Barack Obama has failed the American people."

"When he took office his number one job was to get the economy to turn around...so now, three years later, we have high unemployment...we still have, three years later, home foreclosures at record levels...and what does he have to say about this? He says 'I'm just getting started.'"

"This is not just a crisis, this is a moral crisis that we face in this country. And when this crisis is going on, the president is in the Midwest today taking a victory lap."

"I don't think it's possible to solve a crisis if you can't see a crisis. And this president can't see this crisis and we do."

Texas GOP Rep. Ron Paul, 2012 candidate for president: "I cannot imagine any two more important issues than freedom and faith. The goal of all political activities is liberty and what is the purpose of liberty."

"I don't think we need a king and we don't need Washington to act as if they're the king of this government...people have become dependent on the government and it's cradle to grave...we have confused liberty and where it comes from."

"We're at the crossroads right now because we have lived beyond our means, become totally dependent and done all the things we shouldn't do and none of the things we should do...There's nothing moral about our financial system and our monetary system and this recent breakdown is proof positive."

"We spent too much and we borrowed too much and we printed too much and that didn't help."

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum on social conservatism: I’ve been out there fighting for the causes that social conservatives care about. Social conservatives understand that America is a great country because it’s founders were great...I’ve always been pro-life, I’ve always been for traditional marriage.
A lot of folks weren’t here last year...they come and say they’ll take the pledge...Ladies and Gentleman, I don’t just take the pledge, I take the bullets."
Santorum on terrorism: "Even President Bush got it wrong. Terror is a tactic, it’s not the enemy. The enemy are radical Islamists. They want to destroy us not because of what we do, but because of who we are. There’s a foundational difference between what they believe and what we believe."

Former House Speaker and 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (via recorded statement): "We are a country in which the people believe that their rights come from God and that therefore each individual is sovereign; that we loan power to the government, the government never loans power to us. That’s why we begin our Constitution 'We the People' – not we the lawyers, not we the bureaucrats, not we the judges, not we the politicians, not even we the news media. It’s We the People."

2012 presidential candidate and businessman Herman Cain on possible biblical references to current economic situation: “Many of you will recognize 2nd Corinthians 4th chapter, verses 8 and 9. ‘We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed.' Could the Apostle Paul have been talking about the United States of America? Could the Apostle Paul have been talking about our friend and ally Israel? I happen to believe that those prophetic words apply to both. Because we are troubled on many sides. And in a very short period of time – two years and five months and four days and counting – this nation has become a nation of crises. We have a moral crisis. We have an economic crisis. We have an entitlement spending crisis. We have an energy crisis. We have a foggy foreign policy crisis. And we have a severe deficiency of leadership crisis in the White House.”

Herman Cain on growing up as an African-American: “When I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, in my early days in the 50’s and the 60’s I remember having to go to the back door of some establishments in the South. And now I can walk through the front door and I can run for President of the United States in the greatest country in the world. Is this a great nation or what?”

soundoff(69 Responses)

"And I am committed, I am committed. I will not rest until we repeal Obamacare. America will not rest until we repeal Obamacare."

Yes, Michelle, you should be committed!

Take it to the bank. Cash the check. It will be done. It will not stand; the American people will not stand."

You're right...Americans will not stand......when you take away affordable and available health care.

June 3, 2011 01:45 pm at 1:45 pm |

kayla

JESUS called them HYPOCRITES.

June 3, 2011 01:55 pm at 1:55 pm |

Sniffit

Huntsman wants to talk about the serfdom of debt, eh? How about skyrocketing average middle-class household debt while (a) average middle-class wages have remained almost stagnant for 3+ decades and failed to keep up with inflation and (b) the average ratio of executive salary to middle-class wage earner salary has gone from 42:1 in the 1980s to 411:1 now. The only thing trickling down is the GOP peeing on our legs and telling us it's raining. The plutocratic wormhole their economic ideologies and policies have led us down is what is destroying this country and creating functional indentured servitude...not to the government...no no...but to our employers, particularly the largest corporations, banks and financial institutions, who have purchased the GOP and are now using them to take away your labor rights so that you will be fully and irrevocably their serfs. Huntsman and the rest can go screw themselves sideways if they think the lowest tax rates in over 60 years constitute serfdom: the only reason those tax rates are starting to hurt so badly is because your employers and large corporations have been and are slowly siphoning off ALL of the wealth and assets available in this country while attenuating everyone else's ability to compete and grab some for themselves. Redistribution of wealth? THAT is where it is all going and has been for several decades since we started following the GOP's yellow brick road to plutocracy. THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE. WAKE THE HELL UP AMERICA.

I hope people are smart enough to see through this Faith and Freedom Coalition nonsense. How many people of color are represented in this coalition? It is nothing but a group of racist people.

June 3, 2011 02:04 pm at 2:04 pm |

Terry Gloege

Never have I seen so many butt kissing so few. For the life of me I don't understand why these folks are so afraid of this group.

June 3, 2011 02:05 pm at 2:05 pm |

bkgrandma

Please stop saying Republicans are Christians. Real followers of Christ care about the less fortunate...The Republicans care about the rich and only the rich. Please show me where in the Bible it says "help the rich and powerful ".

June 3, 2011 02:06 pm at 2:06 pm |

janetlaw

THIS is the best they have to offer? Wow – sad. Oh, and Bachmann, what would suggest in place of universal health care, hmmmm???? What your buddy in AZ has done? If you are poor, just go away and die? Scary.

June 3, 2011 02:06 pm at 2:06 pm |

Marjee123

Anybody with a squiggle of sense who really truly believes that any of the political republicans are Christian and really have faith are the most stupid, dumb, ignorant and butt wipes out there. All you have to do is look at the bills they vote for and see that. And if God would ever lower himself to speak to one of them the closest he would get is spitting in their ear.

June 3, 2011 02:09 pm at 2:09 pm |

d

Sorry Haley – the Tea Party may be running as Republicans, but they'll make sure that whoever your nominee is will have to pander so far to the right that he won't have a chance in a national election.

June 3, 2011 02:13 pm at 2:13 pm |

Pete

What a freak show.

June 3, 2011 02:15 pm at 2:15 pm |

Clwyd

Where is the translator? Nobody could want this man for president! We wouldn't be able to understand a word he says!

June 3, 2011 02:18 pm at 2:18 pm |

Joe from CT, not Lieberman

Hey, Governor Barbour, how's that Bedford Forrest thingy goin' for ya? So the Tea Party has finally acknowledged it wants full control of the Republican Party, huh. Guess what all you Moderate Republicans and Log Cabin types, your Party has decided you are no longer wanted.
Congresswoman Bachmann – you want to repeal "Obamacare" right? What do you want to replace it with that will actually improve the quality of life of your constituents? And I see you, like the rest of your Party, cannot wait to suck up to that Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing country called Israel.
Ambassador Huntsman – you are in enemy territory. Those folks at this conference believe LDS is a cult, and have no use for you.

June 3, 2011 02:20 pm at 2:20 pm |

Saywhat

So let me get this straight Republicans are not into helping the country.but convincingness their voters that an invisible man from up the sky will provide them everything.. Now I get it they will not fixed everything they did wrong and urge their voters to just pray and pray and maybe Manna will pour out of the sky. and not helping people being victimized by the tornado was not worthy of helping because the tornado was in fact the rapture and that those whose been blown away was raptured and the people who survived but got their homes and livelihood destroyed was not worthy of it. The voters AND SUPPORTERS of this assholes must be suffering some serious brain injury to vote for them. I THOUGHT AMERICA WAS THE LEADER IN INNOVATION, PROGRESS AND LIBERTY. RIGHT NOW THE ONLY INNOVATION AND PROGRESS AND LIBERTY I SEE ARE THOSE OF THE UPPER 1% RICH PEOPLE IN DUPING AND RUINING THE LIVES OF THE MIDDLECLASS FOR THEIR OWN GREEDY SELF PRESERVATION.

June 3, 2011 02:23 pm at 2:23 pm |

taylor

good old fat jowly good old boy pubs, hehawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They come out after dark boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hhhhooowwwwwdddddyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 3, 2011 02:27 pm at 2:27 pm |

The Real Tom Paine

Haley, you are not running as Republicans, you are running as fringe conservatives. You don't represent people, you represent industries that act amazed that their actions need to be scrutinized. You are right that there is no perfect candidate, but you need to think beyond the collection of flat-earthers you were addressing and ask youself, how are we going to win Independent voters? Truth is, if you run as Conservative republicans you will lose the independents in droves.

June 3, 2011 02:27 pm at 2:27 pm |

Irma in North Carolina

You know darn well the republican congress will do nothing about the job situation, cause they want that to hurt the president, when the election comes around. Can the American people not see through this.